Archive of "Today's Feature" for 2024 updated daily
Winter Splinter December 31 (Lou Ella Hickman "cold fire")
winter also burns black
under its white indifference
Winter Splinter December 30 (H.L. Dowless "The Big Pig Fiasco")
The men of the house were out of bed before daylight on Christmas, picking their shotguns up from various wall racks and ammunition from the dresser top, grabbing their surplus army coats, pausing momentarily only for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Winter Splinter December 29 (Rebecca De La Garza "Christmas Eve") The top of the Christmas Tree touched the ceiling. Presents were piled up high underneath it. We weren’t rich, but we went all out for Christmas. We didn’t feel like celebrating, though. Chrissy had been missing for three days.
Winter Splinter December 28 (Cary Tucker "The Prism of the Night")
She was a prism of the night
Of rainbows cast from moonlit skies,
And through the snowfall, cold and white,
Winter Splinter December 27 (Michael Magistro "Adam’s Winter")
Adam, a young man with sharp eyes and a quiet demeanor, led the last tribe across the endless tundra of snow and ice.
Winter Splinter December 26 (Joseph Wilson "Slow Walking into Winter") It is already winter in the Midwest
In Indiana where I was born it was 38 yesterday
Already snow on the ground in Montana
Winter Splinter December 25 (Faith Rosas "Stick Season") The two of us exited the Big Bend National Park souvenir shop to reencounter my parents who long awaited us and our purchases outside.
Winter Splinter December 24 (Tom Murphy "Rotten Floorboards")
Steppin’ through rotten floorboards
Breaks the plane painfully.
Lights out Michael Quinn
Winter Splinter December 23 (David Carpenter "Grandma Helga")
It wasn't Christmas yet, but us kids were out for the holidays, and Daddy decided it was time to go pay Grandma Helga a visit. She was getting up in years, and Daddy wasn't sure she was going to be around much longer. MORE
Winter Splinter December 22 (Matt Rosas "12-14-1998") Daphne and I work at Mervyn’s. She has long and curly reddish hair, a round face, and constantly smiles. I couldn’t tell you her body shape, as she always seems to have too many layers of clothing on.
Winter Splinter December 21 (William Mays "Jimmy, Too") ​The invitation glittered—gold embossed letters on a cream-colored envelope addressed to Jimmy Waterfield. Of course, it wasn’t intended for him. No one ever invited him to anything. It was for the other Jimmy Waterfield, the Famous Jimmy Waterfield, and had been mailed to the wrong address.
Winter Splinter December 20 (Carol Mays "Pepper Cane's Rant") Merry Christmas, you say? For you maybe, but not for me! I mean, who ever heard of one of Santa’s elves getting arrested and having to do community service?
Winter Splinter December 19 (R.A. Daunton "The Forty Winks of the Narcoleper")
She was moving, yet she was still. Her body shimmered, glowing like nectar, amber and translucent. The woman’s mind was clear, empty of all woe, of all thought
Winter Splinter December 18 (Dustin Hackfield "The Approach of Cold Steel")
the owl’s shadow stirs within a basket of barren trees
as the queens leave their paper lanterns
hanging from the eaves
Winter Splinter December 17 (Patricia McCue "Frozen Tracks")
Frozen imprints on a white lawn
What creature left its mark?
A squirrel, he said, big hands.
Winter Splinter December 16 (Christian Garduno "This Was Christmas...") I’m pretty sure this was all your idea-
you were beaming with pride over it
Winter Splinter December 15 (Gabrielle Vasquez "Daffodil Fields...") Under kamenozoki (1.瓶覗) clouds, the glittering hail hits a frozen sea, playing a divine elegy.
On beds of shimmering snow upon the hills of Echizen Cape(2), a view so heavenly.
Winter Splinter December 14 (Annie Huckabee "Timothy Cratchit, Esq...")
1,225 steps,
more when unforgiving winter swept through,
the crutch digging deep
until the thankful contact
Winter Splinter December 13 (Duane Anderson "Unfriendly Winter Welcome")
Cars and trucks lie in ditches,
now abandoned, buried in snow,
Winter Splinter December 12 (Han Chau "December") December comes in a sign
of winter form when a mother
nature is putting every flourish
Winter Splinter December 11 (Gabriela Vannier "rainwalk") I shove open the heavy door against a gust of wind
Cold water splashes my face
Winter Splinter December 10 (Kristen Roedell "Snow Hosts") I’d forgotten how snow
falls, this house as hushed
Winter Splinter December 9 (Christine Law "Bittersweet Memories")
Marie Osborne looked around her living room at the Christmas tree in the corner decked out with brightly coloured tinsel and baubles, with Santa and his reindeer sitting on top. Her first Christmas without Hank.
Winter Splinter December 8 (Rosemary McCauley "The Beginning Light of Chanukah")
Deep in the pit of a darkened world
Silenced in hushed agony’s prison
Winter Splinter December 7 (Nicki Nance "The Doll") It was a nightmare of a Christmas. At four-years-old, I lived for Golden Books, stuffed animals, and an extra cavatelli – the one my mother said would be too heavy in my stomach. MORE
Winter Splinter December 6 (E.C. Traganas "Winter Haiku")
barking winds rage by
like angry dogs — these winter
days have no manners
Winter Splinter December 5 (Olivia Arieti "Thanksgiving on the Fields")
The sun shone gently
On the russet fields
The corn, the squash
Smiled at the joyous day MORE
Winter Splinter December 4 (Sara Etgen-Baker "CHRISTMAS WITHOUT TINY")
The sun had set; pale winter stars filled the sky; and snowflakes swirled slowly blanketing the neighborhood streets. A Yule log crackled in the fireplace, MORE
Winter Splinter December 3 (Martha Ellen "You Called Me Momma")
Last night I dreamt of you my lost
child now grown. We were on
a long night journey. Cold. MORE
December 2 (Priscille Nyeck "To My Friend") My Christmas vacations
I'll spend them at Grandma's MORE
December 1 (Bill Nevins "Christmas...")
You, this morning, as the light seeped in,
stood by that crack beneath our door MORE
Winter Splinter November 30 (Peter Newall "Winter in...") Leszek had been awake since before dawn. He didn’t want to be; he’d been out drinking last night with some university classmates, and he’d rather have slept it off. MORE
Winter Splinter November 29 (Tulip Chowdbury "Winter Nights")
My guitar is silent like the hushed snow land outside
while I wait for you to knock on my door. MORE
Nov. 28 Winter Splinter Day 1 (Jill Hand "One Thanksgiving.") One Thanksgiving, my mother made a turkey out of Spam... MORE
November 26. Where do great writers live? On MaysPublishing.com. MORE
November 25 Winter Splinter, our latest web-based anthology starts Thanksgiving Day, November 28. Each day through the end of the year, we'll publish season-themed works by writers from around the world. SEE ANTHOLOGIES
November 24 (Pete Adler "Big Hair...") backstage with her teenage idol
minor characters emerge
obsessed with the ocean MORE
(Juan Perez) (November 23) Why did the ghost burn the toast?
So many theories on how this went down
Some of them funny like a nose on a clown MORE
November 22 (Annie Huckabee "Random")“Cucumber martini, Titos, and one Turks Head, please.”
It’s the usual drink order here at the Shelf Life Swim Up Bar in the Caribbean... READ THE REST
November 20 (Robin Carstensen "Prizefighter...) No. 15
Dear Search Committee for English Faculty at Midwest Prairie University:
I am a swinger. I can swing from one vine to another all day long, on and on MORE
November 19 (Jennifer Florence "Today Was...")Today was a high gravity day -- very high gravity.
If I had to hazard a guess, I would say today's gravity was at least 19.394 m/s2 in most of my house MORE
November 17 (John Meza "At Times...") At times, I feel insufficient
Like not enough water
For a plant
Not enough oxygen to sustain me MORE
November 18 (Alan Berecka "note to...") the next time the universe and time conspire
to bring you back to work in Waco at that library
run by that maniacal director with an iron fist MORE
November 17 (F.E.I. "Super Singularity" from CCW2023) At his retirement party, I was told by the affable man that I cried all the way from Chicago to Corpus, and my mother had asked if he would like to hold the bottle for me MORE
November 16 (Emma Helene Guerra "Tooth Decay" I can feel my teeth rotting inside my mouth.
Brown-grey cavities jutting out in mangled bone
piercing my gums. MORE
November 15 (Christian Garduno "Montana Jake") Clenching his teeth
Montana Jake took an uppercut swing
and nailed The Trapper squarely MORE